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One of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian philosophy, The City of God provides an insightful interpretation of the development of modern Western society and the origin of most Western thought. Contrasting earthly and heavenly cities--representing the omnipresent struggle between good and evil--Augustine explores human history in its relation to all eternity. In Thomas Merton's words, "The City of God is the autobiography of the Church written by the most Catholic of her great saints."

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition is a complete and unabridged version of the Marcus Dods translation.

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What can I say? This is a classic. I am so glad I read this before my 30th birthday and before the 2016 US presidential election. It really puts things into perspective. No matter how great I think America is and how much of a superpower it is it does not compare to how long and how great the Roman Empire was. I cannot even begin to imagine how the citizens of Rome must have felt when they heard the news that the barbarian tribes from the north took over Rome in 410AD. This apologetic work from Augustine of Hippo does not only argue that the City of God will overcome the City of Man one day but also teaches one how to engage critics and persuasively convince the reader. Augustine was a Roman through and through but His love for the true Eternal City was always more important. This book gave me an appreciation for how God always has a 'pilgrim people' that He has predestined to fight the good fight. If you are looking for a biblical theology of the City of God throughout all of Scripture then this is a great read for you. It will also give you an appreciation for how the current trend of 'gospel-centered' is not anything new but really old and Augustine was a master at making Christ-centered connections from the OT.

For example, on page 971 Augustine skillfully writes, "This is why, as the Lord carried his cross, so Isaac himself carried to the place of sacrifice the wood on which he too was to be placed. Moreover, after the father had been prevented from striking his son, since it was not right that Isaac should be slain, who was the ram whose immolation completed the sacrifice by blood of symbolic significance? Bear in mind that when Abraham saw the ram it was caught by the horns in a thicket. Who, then, was symbolized by that ram but Jesus, crowned with Jewish thorns150 before he was offered in sacrifice?

The book is filled with little nuggets all throughout. Couldn't recommend it more!

This is a review of the Kindle edition -- that's why the rating is 3 stars. The book proper gets 5 stars from me, but the Kindle version gets 1.

Why? Because it's obviously been scanned in from a printed edition and then only tidied perfunctorily. Maybe one page in eight has at least one scanner error (they tend to clump), and running a spell-check program would have caught a good fraction of them. A bored intern who read every word of the text would have caught almost all. It's amusing to read about Flatonists rather than Platonists, and it keeps me on my toes to have "the" replace "die" much of the time, but it soon gets tiresome.

Penguin Classics has stopped caring about their readers. It's pathetic. This Kindle edition is roughly as expensive as the paperback, at least here, and they can't even be bothered to run a spell-checker program on it, let alone pay anyone to proofread it.

If you simply must have this translation in Kindle format, you're stuck with this. I'm certain that Penguin Classics will do nothing to fix these problems.

A must read for those who want to understand their Catholic Faith in a deeper sense. We see so many issues and problems today that we may think that these are all new and that we need to develop solutions to address them. As Catholics we only need look back to the works of the Church Fathers to see that our to problems are not new and that they have been addressed with Scripture backed solutions. St Augustine's "City of God" provides us with such guidance. The chapters are concise but one does need to have a sense of historical events since he was addressing the same issues we face today in the context of his own time.

If you can handle the depth of this book- it doesn't get any better than this. A true masterpiece!Saint Augustine gives an excellent understanding of God's ways and explains how all humans have a mutual fate on this planet- the trials of life that strengthen or break- we have the choice. Just brilliant!

This is a gigantic book, written over a long period of time by a Father of the Church. Many of our ideas as Christians originate in this book. It is very important, but also requires a slow and careful read. A challenge! The apparatus in the book--summaries, etc.--are very helpful. I like the translation.